Shipping

Web search for missing Hampshire sailor

ROYAL Navy investigators are using social networking sites in a bid to find a missing Hampshire sailor.

Leading seaman Timothy Andrew MacColl, 27, from Gosport, vanished six days ago while on shore leave from the HMS Westminster in Dubai.

Navy officials, who have been working with local authorities and Foreign Office (FCO) representatives in the United Arab Emirates in the search for Timothy, have started using social networking
websites to try to find him.

The frigate HMS Westminster arrived in Dubai last Saturday before setting sail again on Thursday.

The married father-of-two, whose wife is expecting their third child in October, was last seen by a shipmate getting into a taxi alone at around 2am on Sunday.

He is said to have just left the Rock Bottom Bar at the Regent Hotel in the area of Deira, around a 15-minute drive from Port Rashid, where HMS Westminster was docked.

Leading seaman MacColl, known as Timmy, and originally from Killin, in Scotland, has two children aged six and four.